South Korean Scientists Turned a Glue Gun Into a Bone

South Korean scientists have re-engineered a basic arts and crafts glue gun to print bones onto fractured limbs—literally.

That little flimsy plastic gun you keep in your arts and crafts drawer, which you used to bedazzle thrift store denim jackets, has been reengineered by a team of smarty-pants to print three-dimensional bone grafts onto the shattered femurs of poor little rabbits.

Published in the journal Device, researchers at Sungkyunkwan University bypassed the usual long, expensive process of manufacturing metal or donor bone implants by bringing some physical engineering to the world of bioengineering.

They created what they call an “in situ printing system,” meaning surgeons can now apply bone-graft material directly into a break, in real-time, during surgery, without waiting o